Aagaard, Bjarne, 1873-1956

Bjarne Aagaard was born in 1873 at Sandjeford, Norway. At the age of fifteen he went to sea, visiting North and South America before entering a shipping office in Glasgow. By 1892, he had become manager of the firm's branch in Greenock and the following year he moved to Hamburg where he started his own shipping office in 1898. At the request of the Norwegian shipping lines, Aagaard established a successful firm in Hong Kong in 1904, with branches in Kobe and Yokohama. After travelling extensively in the East and South America, he formed a company in 1914 to exploit mineral springs at Larvik, where he became Swedish consul in 1920.

On his retirement in 1925, Aagaard settled at Stavern in Norway and wrote numerous articles and books on Antarctic history and whaling. He devoted himself to defending Norwegian interests in Antarctica, influencing both popular and political opinion towards Norway's annexation of Bouvetøya, Peter I Oy and Dronning Maud Land. His most scholarly work, Fangst og forskning i Sydishavet, a four-volume study of whaling and exploration in the Southern Ocean containing a bibliography of approximately 8000 entries, was published between 1930 and 1950. He died on 29 September 1956.

Published work, Fangst og forskning i Sydishavet by Bjarne Aagaard, Gyldendal, Oslo (1930-1934) SPRI Library Shelf (7)91(091)[1930]

From the guide to the Bjarne Aagaard collection, 1911-1949, (Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge)